This blog's title is based upon the best question I ever overheard being asked, by a young Liverpudlian child to his mother, as in "What's..?".
The answer seems to be something of a creative and cultural nature which, in deed (primarily the making of art) and word, this blog intends to explore...

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

World Cup '74 Portrait #189 (Rene Houseman: Argentina)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

The latest re-mediated subject is René Houseman, the drawing being
processed from reference to the third of four ‘cheat’ constructed stickers,
featuring found images of players whose names are remembered from my experience
of the televised coverage of the event but who were not selected for inclusion
in either the FKS ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’ or Panini ’München
74’ commemorative albums that otherwise provide the original source material
upon which the project is founded &, indeed, was inspired by.

As previously mentioned, in connection with Houseman’s Argentina teammate
Carlos Babington, by their absence from such (repositories of) memorabilia,
their lack of a tangible physical presence, their leaving no trace, such
players are perhaps the most ‘ghostly’ of all in such a context.

Back to our particular subject, René
Houseman appeared, either from the kick-off (occasionally being withdrawn) or otherwise
introduced as a substitute, in each of the Argentinians’ 6 matches at the
tournament, scoring 3 goals & obviously generally creating a memorable
impression, possibly because of the ‘Englishness’ of his surname (like Babington’s,
the only other of the Argentinian team/squad’s names to stick in the memory) but
not least visually, as photographs suggest he habitually wore his socks rolled
down to his ankles, as a few players did back in the day (‘before health &
safety went mad’, etc), thus marking him out, probably for spectators, viewers
& opponents alike.